To ask if 47 is too late to sort pension out?

[Amoregentlemanlikemanner]

I am 47 and only just back to full time. I'm self employed and expecting to earn £60k this year. I've paid £25000 into my rubbish pension fund (when I was part time I didn't pay in)

Apart from the deferred taxation, am I doing the right thing?

DH has a decent career average pension, similar wage (but salaried)

Ask HMRC for a record of your state pension and if necessary buy some extra years or make AVCs. And put anything else you can towards a private pension or alternative investment (property?) for your pension.

It’s always better to start a pension no matter how late you’ve left it! Please get one!

Literally NEVER too late. You could be in some kind of employment for another 20 years so pay in and take the tax relief while you can

Oh good! That's what I hoped, the money I pay in this year will be useful when I'm 75.

I have always been a sole trader and earned between £18 and 44k whilst part time so I believe my state pension is fully paid up. I have contributed to it for 21 years. I got the statement for it and it was worth more than the private one which was depressing.

We did max out dh's pension whilst It was a final salary scheme so as long as we stay married we'll have maybe £30k/yr from that.
However, assuming we will stay happily married is against mumsnet religion I know!

Assuming you are thinking of retiring at some point in your 60s, there is time for you to build up a respectable retirement income. You’ll need to decide how much you want to contribute - as much as possible - but make sure you invest in a fund that invests heavily in equities. They are a riskier investment than, say, bonds but the potential returns are greater. The conventional wisdom is that while you are a good few years from retirement you can recover from the fluctuations in equity performance so in the last few years before retirement you switch gradually into safer investments. There are funds that will carry out the switching (known as lifestyling) for you. At the age of 45 I changed jobs and realised, like you, that I needed to do something serious about my pension so I paid 10% of my salary into a pension fund while my employer paid 6%. At the age of 63 I had built up enough, when added to my modest pensions from earlier employment, to retire on a reasonable income and at 65 the state pension kicked in so finances are OK now.

ooh thank you.
I paid in £10000 last year when I was 46 so AlessandroVasectomi you can be my role model.:)

What I'm picking up is that I need to look harder at what the funds are actually invested in.... I have been very passive about that.

I confess, paying in the pension is a way of staying lazy. I understand that so long as my profits are £40k or less I can justify not setting up a Ltd Co! Also, if I had not paid national insurance my state pension would be worse.

I'm looking in to it now too. At least you're married!. I am single, also 47, and I recently sent the thing off to the hrmc to see how many years I have. I worked nearly but not quite ten years in the uk, but depending on your age you can be given extra years. So I'm hoping I have 10. So far in my home country I have about 4 years eek and I think I would need 35 to qualify for an Irish state pension so it dawned on me recently that I can never get that. I can't work another 30 years at my age. So I might take out a loan to buy extra years for a uk pension.
I have money saved that I could put towards these years. I'd rather spend it on a kitchen extension mind you.

It's very easy to check your state pension record on the HMRC website.

I started a pension at 41. It is a civil service one so I hope it will be ok as long as I stay in my job 25 years (hopefully not though😂).

"have money saved that I could put towards these years. I'd rather spend it on a kitchen extension mind you."

Finding out that you cant do 35 years is one of those "crikey I'm not young" moments isn't it?

I went to a Brexit lawyers recruitment day just to hear about the pension. It was like stroking a unicorn!